This blog is Part 3 of a multi-part series. Make sure to check out the other blogs on this topic:
- Epson Robots Getting Started: Create a New Project in Epson RC+
- Epson RC+ Project Structure Explained: Files, Folders, and Flow
- Epson Robots Commissioning Tools and Workflows in RC+
Summary
In the third entry in this series, we will be going over some useful tools for commissioning a new Epson robot and troubleshooting programs. We will discuss how to configure the robot controller, operate the robot manually, teach and configure the points and coordinates required for the application, and highlight useful tools for troubleshooting and testing the robot program.
System Configuration: Defining Controller Behavior
The first step in commissioning an Epson robot is to configure the controller through the System Configuration menu. You can access this window by navigating to the toolbar and selecting Setup, then System Configuration. This area defines how the controller behaves at startup and establishes several foundational settings that impact safety, operability, and overall workflow during commissioning and production.
When the System Configuration window opens, it defaults to the Startup tab. While this tab may seem simple, the selections you make here play a critical role in how the robot transitions from power-on to operation and how engineers interact with the system during early testing.
Startup
In the Startup tab, there are two primary setup modes, ‘Auto’ and ‘Program’, as well as an option to require a password on startup.
Selecting ‘Auto’ means that when the robot is powered on, it will enter Auto mode and begin running its programs automatically. If you select ‘Program’, the robot will be stopped upon startup and wait for commands from the Epson RC+ 7.0 software. This setting is typically used in fully commissioned calls where the robot is integrated with external equipment like a PLC, safety system, or HMI.
Select ‘Program’ mode for initial commissioning. Only set the robot to ‘Auto’ mode after teaching positions and thoroughly testing programs to avoid collisions or unexpected behavior.
Controller
After confirming your startup behavior in System Configuration, the next step is to focus on the Controller section of the project tree. This area is essentially the ‘hub’ for how the controller communicates with the outside world and interprets commands. During commissioning, many issues that appear to stem from the program (robot won’t start, IO won’t respond, remote start won’t work) trace back to controller settings.
To access these settings, expand the Controller drop-down by clicking the ‘+’ immediately to the left of Controller. This opens a set of tabs that let you define network parameters, configure device control, set up multi-robot configurations, and map fieldbus bits used for remote program selection.
Spending a few moments reviewing these sections can help ensure your controller aligns with your cell architecture before you start troubleshooting motion, IO, or PLC handshakes.
Here is a quick summary of the important sections under Controller.
- Configuration Tab: This is where you will set the IP Address and Gateway. You can also select a control device from ‘Remote IO’ or ‘PC’. Selecting ‘Remote IO’ tells the robot to listen to the remote I/O, and selecting PC tells the robot to listen to commands from the Epson RC+ 7.0 software on the connected computer.
- Robots Tab: In this tab, you can add or remove robots when you have multiple robots tied to a single controller. Press the ‘Add’ button on the right, and the following window will appear, where you can add the details of your robot.
- Inputs/Outputs Tab: This tab lets you set the byte sizes of your inputs and outputs. For your Fieldbus I/O, depending on how you are communicating with your robot, you will need to configure the byte size here.
- Remote Control Tab: Map your program control to bits in the fieldbus space using the ‘Remote Control Tab’. There are separate tabs for inputs and outputs.
Robot Manager: Controlling Power & Movement
The robot manager is the primary interface for manually interacting with the robot from your PC. In the pop-up dialog, there are several tabs where you can control the robot’s power, move the robot, teach positions and coordinate systems, configure tools, set motion limits, and more. To access the robot manager, you need to first connect the robot to the internet. Then, click the robot arm icon in the toolbar to launch the window. From there, there are a number of features that allow you to manually control your robot’s motion.
Control Panel Tab
This is the primary screen of the Robot Manager. Here you can view the status of the controller’s power and safety signals, turn the motors on or off, select your power mode, and clear any errors. In addition, you can free any axis if you want to be able to move it by hand. For 6-axis applications, you can control whether certain joints are locked or unlocked.
The top row shows the selected robot, the local coordinate system, the tool number, and the external center point (ECP). When teaching points, be sure the correct values are selected, as the taught positions depend on them.
Jog & Teach Tab
To manually move the robot and teach positions, navigate the Jog & Teach tab. This feature is frequently used during commissioning and point setup, as it allows you to view the robot’s current position, control its motion, and save taught points.
On the right side of the window, you can see the robot’s current position and arm orientation, along with controls for jog-distance and speed. Position data can be displayed using different coordinates, including World, Joint, or Pulse. World coordinates are the standard Cartesian values; Joint is the angle of each axis in the robot; and Pulse is the encoder reading.
On the left side, you can jog the robot using the arrow buttons. The Mode dropdown lets you choose whether to jog along a linear path or control individual axes. To teach a point, first jog the robot to the desired location, then select the appropriate point file and name, and press ‘Teach’ to save the position.
To navigate to a previously taught position, select the Execute Motion tab.
Available motion command options will vary based on the robot model you are using, but ’Go’ and ‘Move’ are the most basic. The ‘Go’ command will move your robot from its current position to the selected destination using a joint move, meaning that any combination of 1-6 robot joints could move at the same time. This type of movement will mostly be non-linear. The ‘Move’ command will move your robot linearly from its current position to the selected destination.
After selecting the desired command and destination, press ‘Execute’ to start the motion. While the robot is moving, a pop-up window will appear, showing which point it is moving to and providing a stop button that lets you halt its motion immediately if needed.
Points Tab
The Points tab displays all point files and taught positions stored on the robot. This view allows you to review, edit, and manage the positional data used by motion commands throughout the program. Each point includes X, Y, and Z values in millimeters and U, V, and W values in degrees.
From this tab, you can manually adjust point values and save changes directly to the controller. Because points are referenced symbolically in the program, any updates made here automatically apply wherever the point is used, simplifying updates during commissioning and long-term maintenance.
Locals Tab
A local coordinate system is a coordinate frame that is rotated relative to the robot’s default world coordinate system. Defining local coordinates can be useful when a robot repeatedly interacts with a specific area of a cell—especially if motion does not align cleanly with the world axes. It can also greatly simplify programming by allowing moves to be defined relative to a task rather than the global frame.
To define local coordinate systems, navigate to the Locals tab. There is a Local Wizard that walks you through the process of defining a new local based on taught points. If you already know the desired origin and orientation, you can manually enter it into the table. Press ‘Apply’ after using the wizard or manually adding values to save your changes to the robot.
Tools Tab
The Tools tab is very similar to the Locals tab. Here you can define coordinate systems for your end effector. A tool wizard can walk you through setting up a tool coordinate system, or you can manually enter a coordinate system in the table. Tools are useful when used with a device at the end of the robot that is not centered on the robot arm. When commanded to move to a position with a different tool selected, the robot will move so that the tool’s center is in the correct position, rather than the robot arm.
XYZ Limits Tab
In the XYZ Limits tab, you can set limits for the X, Y, and Z axes within which your robot is allowed to move. You will need to set this up when commissioning a robot for the first time. The ‘Read’ button at the bottom of the pop-up dialog will capture the current position of the selected axis limit.
You can free all joints on your robot and move it by hand to the maximum and minimum positions to record these points. This can help quickly define the space your robot is allowed to move in. Alternatively, you can manually enter or modify any of the values.
Range Tab
The next tab we will look at is the Range tab. Here you can define the limits for the encoder pulses for each joint. Similarly to the XYZ Limits tab, you can read the current robot’s position as the maximums or minimums for any joint. Joint limits differ from XYZ limits in that they monitor each robot axis rather than the tooling position.
Home Config Tab
The last tab we will go over is Home Config. In this tab, you can set the home encoder positions for each of your joints. To set your desired joint home position in the left column Home Position, you can read the current position of a joint or manually enter its encoder value. In the right column under Home Order, you can send which order you would like each of the joints to home in. Leaving them all set to ‘Step 1’ means they will all return home simultaneously.
To test the home function, navigate to the Control Panel tab and click ‘Home’.
Testing & Troubleshooting Tools
Once the robot is configured and programs are written, effective testing and troubleshooting become critical to a successful commissioning process. Epson RC+ provides several built-in tools that allow you to test logic, monitor execution, and diagnose issues without repeatedly running the full application.
Command Window
The next feature we’ll review is the Command Window. To access the program’s editable command window, select the white icon with a carrot or greater than sign (>) in the main toolbar.
The program’s Command Window will open, allowing you to execute any SPEL+ commands for testing. For example, if you wrote a custom function called ‘Motion’, you could execute that function by typing in ‘Call Motion()’ and pressing enter. For more information on SPEL+ commands, you can reference the help document found by accessing Help > Manuals > SPEL+ Language Reference.
Run Window
The Run Window includes controls for running programs in the current project and can be accessed by clicking the grey-and-white square icon in the main toolbar. During commissioning, this tool gives engineers direct visibility into robot execution, allowing them to run programs, observe behavior in real time, and make targeted adjustments without leaving RC+. Built-in status feedback helps quickly identify pauses or faults, streamlining troubleshooting and reducing time to production.
The image shows what the run window looks like when it is opened. The white area will display all outputs from your programs and any errors that occurred. You can run specific functions by selecting the function drop-down and the desired function. This is a great tool for testing smaller portions of your program, allowing you to debug your robot without running the entire program.
If you have ‘Remote IO’ selected as the control device in your controller configuration under system configuration, the ‘Enable Remote I/O’ button will then wait for the program start command from the fieldbus input. If ‘Remote IO’ is not selected as the control device, the button will say ‘Start’, which immediately executes the selected function.
I/O Monitor
The I/O Monitor provides real‑time visibility into all configured controller inputs and outputs, along with their current states. This tool is especially useful during commissioning and debugging, as it allows you to quickly verify whether signals are being received and set as expected. The I/O Monitor’s interface opens when you click the icon of circles arranged in a square.
From the I/O Monitor, you can confirm that the fieldbus and local I/O are mapped correctly and that inputs change state when external devices, such as sensors or PLCs, are actuated. This helps isolate whether an issue is related to wiring, I/O configuration, or program logic.
Assigned I/O and their symbolic names can be viewed and managed in the I/O Label Editor, ensuring the values displayed in the monitor align with the labels used in your program. Using the I/O Monitor alongside the Run Window makes it easier to validate handshakes, troubleshoot start conditions, and confirm outputs are being driven correctly during program execution.
Task Manager
To access the Task Manager, click the icon with three documents layered over one another. After starting your robot, Task Manager is a useful place to keep track of which tasks are currently running, paused, or aborted. If a task is paused or waiting, it will show you which line it is waiting on.
After starting your robot, the Task Manager is a useful place to keep track of which tasks are currently running, paused, or aborted. If a task is paused or waiting, it will show you which line it is waiting on.
Display Variables
While running your robot program, it is useful to monitor the current value of any variables you may have defined in your programs. This is especially important during commissioning, when you are verifying logic, tuning motion, and validating system behavior against real hardware. Monitoring variable values lets you confirm that inputs, calculations, and state changes occur as expected, making it easier to identify and correct issues early.
You can do this in the Display Variables window. To access it, click ‘Run’ in the main toolbar and select ‘Display Variables’ from the drop-down. Here you can see your ‘Global’, ‘Preserved’, ‘Module’, and ‘Local’ variables, their data types, and current values.
System History
One last useful tool for testing and troubleshooting is the System History window. This is a log of errors or events that have occurred on the robot controller and can be useful for troubleshooting the robot if it stops mid-run, especially if you are at a stage in your project where you are not always connected to the robot controller using RC+. To access this window, select ‘View’ from the toolbar and click ‘System History’.
Conclusion
All these tools can be used with the virtual controller, and I would suggest testing them in the simulated environment first. This allows you to familiarize yourself with the configuration changes, which robot is used, how to perform manual moves and operations, set up the various configurations through the robot manager, and ultimately test the robot program you have developed. Using these tools with the simulated controller will also help with the first-time commissioning of the actual robotic application.
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